Library district to ask voters to increase levy lid

Fort Vancouver Regional Library District leaders took the plunge Monday: They agreed to place a levy lid request measure on the Aug. 17 ballot, asking voters in the district’s four-county territory to raise property taxes about 8 cents per $1,000 in assessed value.

Raising the tax rate to the full 50 cents permitted by state law would raise library district revenue by about $3 million each year, starting in 2011.

The district would use the money to restore days and hours of library operation to pre-2009 levels, rebuild thinning collections of books and other items and offset a loss of revenue caused by lower property values and other economic impacts, officials say.

The 5-1 vote by the board of directors came during a meeting Monday evening in La Center.

Jane Higgins, of Battle Ground, was the lone dissenting vote.

For 2010, the library tax rate is 38 cents per $1,000.

It’s estimated that next year’s rate would rise to 42 cents — making the proposed jump to 50 cents (the measure request) an 8 cent hike.

That would mean an additional $16 tax for a home worth $200,000; $24 for a home worth $300,000; and $32 for a home valued at $400,000.

FVRL’s property tax currently brings in about $16.6 million, or 98 percent of its 2010 operating budget amount.

Property owners in Clark, Skamania and Klickitat counties and part of Cowlitz County have previously paid 50 cents per $1,000, most recently in 2001.

But rates have dropped, after Washington voters approved Initiative 747, which limited annual increases in local taxing district’s base tax amount. (I-747 was later found unconstitutional, but state legislators quickly adopted changes to fulfill its intent).

FVRL property tax collections increased about $44,000 for this year’s budget over the previous year — compared with a nearly $800,000 increase in 2007.

For more information: http://www.fvrl.org/aboutus/Levy.cfm.